28 FRUIT-GROWING 



that produce fine, large, highly colored fruit, 

 and the inference is that such fruit will invari- 

 ably be produced on all nursery stock so propa- 

 gated. 



This inference is not true. The "parent" 

 tree produced that fine fruit, not because of 

 any inherent quality of the tree itself but only 

 because it was planted in a congenial soil, had 

 a congenial climate and was well cared for. A 

 Rambo tree that produces little knotty, worth- 

 less apples may be the " parent" of a fine 

 Rambo tree just as easily as could a tree that 

 bore only fine fruit. In other words a Rambo 

 tree is a Rambo regardless of what you may do 

 to it or where you may plant it. In some soils 

 it may be better and in others worse, but the 

 variety does not change — it remains staple. 

 And that rule applies to any other variety you 

 may name. 



We have varieties of apple that have been 

 known for nearly two hundred years and the 

 first printed description of the fruit conforms 

 exactly to the fruit as we know it to-day. The 

 variety has not changed. It has varied, no 

 doubt, in the hundreds of years that it has been 

 grown in different soils, but the unknown qual- 

 ity in the wood which determines whether a tree 

 is a Ben Davis or a Stayman does not vary. 

 Therefore there can never be a "pedigreed" 

 nursery tree and if you ever find any one who 



